A congressional watchdog agency told Congress that it cannot review and undo federal waivers granted to California for its stricter vehicle emission rules, potentially slamming shut one passageway for ending Advanced Clean Trucks.
The Government Accountability Office has found that Environmental Protection Agency waivers greenlighting California’s Advanced Clean Trucks, Advanced Clean Cars II and Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulation are not subject to the Congressional Review Act. GAO’s decision puts a roadblock in the Trump administration’s plans to terminate the Golden State’s vehicle emission rules.
In February, the EPA sent Congress and the GAO the three waivers for review. The Congressional Review Act requires agencies to submit new rules to Congress and the GAO before they can take effect. Congress then has 60 days to pass a resolution of disapproval with only a simple-majority vote, which would strike down the rule.
The EPA’s waiver for Advanced Clean Trucks was granted in April 2023, with the other two waivers granted this Jan. 6. Neither of those waivers were submitted as rules to Congress or the GAO by the Biden administration. Now under President Donald Trump, the EPA is trying to retroactively start that review process.
However, the GAO had already determined that California’s EPA waivers are not rules subject to the Congressional Review Act.
Three years ago, the Biden administration rescinded a decision by the EPA during Trump’s first term to revoke an Obama-era waiver for Advanced Clean Cars. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., asked the GAO whether those waivers are considered rules under the Congressional Review Act.
In November 2023, the GAO determined that the EPA waivers are not rules under the Congressional Review Act. Rather, they are considered orders and cannot be reviewed and repealed by Congress.
In fact, the EPA included that determination in two of the three waiver notices. The waiver for Advanced Clean Trucks was granted before the GAO decision.
When the EPA under Trump submitted the waivers to the GAO in February, it failed to address that discrepancy. Despite several requests by the GAO to explain the inconsistencies, the EPA never did. In its recent decision blocking Advanced Clean Trucks and other California rules from Congressional review, the GAO simply doubled down on its 2023 decision.
What’s next for California’s EPA waivers?
Despite GAO’s findings, Republicans may move forward with a Congressional Review Act resolution anyway.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order “to eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate.’” That includes terminating “state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles,” a slightly veiled reference to California’s EPA waivers for rules like Advanced Clean Trucks.
Soon after the EPA sent the three California waivers to Congress and the GAO, Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., announced his plans to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution to dissolve Advanced Clean Cars II. Kiley has yet to file that resolution, but GAO’s recent findings may not stop him.
Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans told Land Line in an email that Capito, the group’s chairman, is backing the EPA’s determination that the waivers are rules subject to the Congressional Review Act.
“Chairman Capito continues to agree with the EPA that these waivers are rules and subject to a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act,” an EPW Republicans spokesperson said. “There is nothing in the Congressional Review Act that allows GAO to overrule an agency’s determination that an action is a rule under that statute.”
The Trump administration can still go through the regulatory process to revoke waivers for Advanced Clean Trucks, Advanced Clean Cars II and the Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulation. In his first term, Trump revoked the waiver for Advanced Clean Cars through an EPA final rule. He can do that again with the latest waivers. However, an agency rule can be more easily reversed by a future administration, whereas a Congressional Review Act resolution requires an act of Congress to undo.
Democrat Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff issued a joint statement criticizing the Trump administration’s “weaponization” of the EPA. The senators are members of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
“By ignoring decades of precedent and the plain text of the Congressional Review Act, the Trump EPA is attempting to sell out our nation’s public health and environmental protections to the same polluting industries that bankrolled much of Trump’s campaign,” the senators said. “Congress put in place California’s ability to set vehicle emissions standards in the Clean Air Act, and California emission standards have protected generations of Americans against fossil fuel emissions that poison our air and heat our planet.” LL
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